NEW BALLS PLEASE!

Renaissance man Gerard Pique turns his attention from football to tennis as his company buys the Davis Cup.. and starts a row with the sport’s greatest-ever player, Roger Federer

FOR Gerard Pique, football is a job which takes “two or three hours a day”.

The rest of the time, the World Cup winner and husband of Shakira is a campaigner for Catalan self-determination and the business brain behind a £2.3billion revamp of the Davis Cup.

And not for the first time in his busy career, his off-field activities are causing controversy. This time he is on collision course with Roger Federer. Pique, 31, retired from international football after the World Cup to prolong his Barcelona career and give more time to his investment company Kosmos. The former Manchester United star said: “I am totally available for my club and for my career at Barcelona.

“But football is a sport we play every day for two or three hours. So I have some time in my life to continue working for Kosmos and the Davis Cup. And I will continue to do that.”

Pique has clashed with Madrid politicians, referees and league officials.

And this summer he even infuriated his own club when his Kosmos Studios secretly made Antoine Griezmann’s “The Decision” video, which announced he would be staying at Atletico Madrid – and not joining Barcelona.

But his involvement in the Davis Cup is the riskiest venture for the entrepreneur, who took a course in entertainment and sports business at Harvard University and is friends with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Pique’s plan sees the tennis